CHANDLER — Two Republican Lincoln County sheriff candidates, who finished less than a percentage point apart in the June primary, tackled tough subjects and described their visions for the law enforcement agency in a debate that drew a crowd of about 65 people to American Legion Hall Post 64.
Kevin Garrett, who retired from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation last year, defended his investigation into a controversial case that led to sexual misconduct charges against a woman who is the daughter of Wellston’s mayor and the wife of the town’s police chief.
Aaron Bennett, who works as a deputy for retiring Lincoln County Sheriff Charlie Dougherty, touted his experience at the agency, which was rocked this year by the arrest of another deputy who is accused of raping an administrative staff member. (In a separate incident, a different Lincoln County deputy sheriff was terminated this summer after being convicted of trespassing while off duty.)
Garrett and Bennett finished neck and neck in the five-candidate Republican primary, each garnering roughly 35 percent support from GOP voters. Garrett received three more votes (1,626) than Bennett (1,623). With no other candidates in the race, the winner of the Aug. 27 GOP runoff will take office in January to succeed Dougherty.
The Aug. 5 debate was hosted by the Lincoln County Republican Party and moderated by NonDoc’s editor in chief. An audio recording of the event is embedded below.
Candidates agree sheriff races ‘should be nonpartisan’
Bennett has worked in Lincoln County law enforcement for 20 years. He currently works for the sheriff’s office as the supervisor of school resource officers for Chandler Public Schools.
“I remain levelheaded at all times. I’ve worked in a school. I’ve had many deputies throughout the last five years tell me, ‘I couldn’t do your job.’ It’s a job I look forward to every day,” Bennett said. “I’ve said it out on the campaign trail, that it’s one thing I’ve never done in the last five years is wake up and think, ‘Man I don’t want to go to school.’ Also, being 43 years old, I believe I can commit long term to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office in order to continue on what’s been built upon in the last 14 years through Sheriff Charlie Dougherty.”
Garrett is a retired OSBI agent who described himself as “a country boy.” He said he wants to bring his experience as an investigator and communicator to the sheriff’s office.
“At the OSBI, the No. 1 thing we had to deal with was a relationship, being humble to deal with police departments because we didn’t have original jurisdiction. We had to be requested to help,” Garrett said. “Getting confessions, I’ve done that so many times. You can’t do that if you can’t be humble. You can’t talk to somebody, be real with them to get them to explain to you something horrendous and terrible that they did. Communication is definitely going to be one of the big aspects that’s going to be a plus in the experiences and training that we’ve had.”
Garrett first ran for Lincoln County sheriff in 1992 at age 28, losing the Republican nomination by about 160 votes to then-Sheriff A.T. Brixey Jr. At the time, he owned a nursing home in Stroud where he served as a member of the City Council, a position he resigned to seek the seat. He then became a police officer in Chandler.
Speaking during the Aug. 5 debate 32 years later, Garrett said he would like to continue the meetings with police chiefs throughout Lincoln County that Dougherty instituted.
“We need to be working together. We need to be able to get out here and communicate and cross-train,” Garrett said. “If you have a problem in Prague or you have a problem in Chandler, it’s our problem in Lincoln County, too.”
Both candidates said they want to continue the school resource officer program and build upon it. Bennett, who serves on the board for the county’s Seniors And Law Enforcement Together (SALT) program, said he wants to continue working to help senior citizens be vigilant against fraudulent activity.
With Lincoln County’s next sheriff to be decided in the Aug. 27 Republican runoff election, both candidates expressed support for making sheriff races nonpartisan.
Garrett said voting for sheriff should be like voting for judges: nonpartisan.
“I just happen to be a Republican. It would be nice that everybody could vote for who’s going to represent them as the sheriff, but in this situation, that’s not going to happen,” Garrett said. “That’s why everyone’s going to have to depend on us Republicans to make the right decision (and) put the right person in each of the offices that are coming up.”
Bennett also said the sheriff’s position should be nonpartisan.
“We have a good chunk of population that doesn’t have a say, so yes, I do believe it should be nonpartisan,” Bennett said.
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Garrett responds to Facebook post about OSBI inquiry
Arguing that the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office would benefit from fresh leadership, Garrett said deputies need to be vetted and trained well.
“It’d be really nice if we were able to make sure that every deputy that carried a gun that worked for the sheriff’s office was a good investigator. That’s going to be one of my biggest goals that I want to try to do when we get in here,” Garrett said. “I think there’s a lot of times that law enforcement, police, deputies — they kind of get a feeling that everybody out here is kind of our enemy. There’s so many bad things that you read about all the time, or a policeman gets killed or something like that occurs. But we have to be able to realize that community policing — that we need to be available. We need to be able to reach out here to you. And if you have a problem or you have something going on that we need to respond, we need to have that rapport with the citizens we represent.”
Bennett echoed the importance of having well-trained deputies in a sheriff’s office.
“Honestly, I think judgment is tested every day within law enforcement. Deputies, officers — you’re making split-second decisions that can last a lifetime for you, for other people,” Bennett said. “With that, I think a well-trained deputy (…) is very important in this day and age.”
When asked about the sustainability of the county jail, both candidates acknowledged that the people voted against building a new jail.
In 2021, Lincoln County voters roundly rejected a $13.5 million proposal to construct a new jail, with more than 78 percent of ballots being cast against the bond project.
Asked whether current renovations will be enough to sustain the facility for the next four or eight years, Garrett said the Lincoln County Jail needed cosmetic repairs and that the focus should be making sure the facility is secure. Bennett said the more pressing concern is that the county develop a plan that allows the jail to be fully staffed.
Near the conclusion of the Aug. 5 debate, Garrett was asked about a Facebook post that criticized him for a high-profile investigation conducted near the end of his OSBI career. The case resulted in felony charges against Emma Delaney Hancock, who is accused of sending explicit messages to a high school student and engaging in sexual acts with him while she was a substitute teacher at Wellston High School. A trial is scheduled for October.
On July 31, the alleged victim’s mother claimed on Facebook that Garrett “cornered my husband” outside the Chandler Atwoods and accused their son of lying. She said her family filed a formal complaint with OSBI, which she claimed triggered an internal investigation and spurred Garrett’s retirement.
“My response to that Facebook post is everyone is innocent until they’re proven guilty. Facebook is not the place where you drag people into victims, suspects, etc. on something like that. It hasn’t gone to court yet. That’s the ugliness about that deal. Now, when people say you don’t do a good job on an investigation, I would like to say that any time you work a case and you get five felony charges on someone that made it through the preliminary hearing — it’s going to trial — I don’t know what we can complain about,” Garrett said. “Sometimes we have personality issues that everybody doesn’t like somebody the way they do something, per se. But you know, when you do an investigation, you have to be unbiased, no matter who the victim is, who your suspect is. I don’t have a dog in the fight. I’m trying to find the truth. You’re constantly always wanting to know what is the truth.”
While he did not address if the allegations contributed to his retirement during the debate, Garrett posted his own Facebook statement on July 11 where he said he “chose to retire” and that “any claims suggesting that I was fired are unequivocally false and without merit.”
“Throughout my career, I have always strived for integrity, transparency, and professionalism,” Garrett wrote. “These values will continue to guide me as I seek the position of Sheriff. I am committed to bringing the same dedication and service to this role, and I look forward to the opportunity to serve our community in this capacity.”
During the debate, Bennett was asked to address concerns that his experience in law enforcement is limited compared to Garrett, particularly when it would come to managing a large agency.
“I’ll be the first one to say, I don’t know everything. I am in law enforcement for the last 21 years. I’ve been a dispatcher, I’ve been a dispatch supervisor, I’ve been a patrol officer, patrol supervisor, canine handler. I have been an investigator, most recently, school resource officer and school resource officer supervisor,” Bennett said. “Again, for the last five years, I’ve been mentored by Sheriff Charlie Dougherty. I feel at my age — I know I’ve taken heat [about my age and claims I am] inexperienced. I do feel 21 years in law enforcement in Lincoln County is experience. What I will say again to that, though — at 43, I can commit long term. It’s a four-year term, I feel with the voters’ approval, I can serve 20 years if the voters approve of that.”
Whoever wins the Aug. 27 Lincoln County sheriff runoff will inherit an agency whose employees are awaiting decisions from District Attorney Adam Panter regarding former deputy sheriff Jacob Peebles, who was arrested this summer when a female employee of the office accused him of rape.
Panter told NonDoc that while Peebles was arrested, he is still waiting to review additional evidence in the case before deciding whether to file charges. A judge sealed the probable cause affidavit that led to Peebles’ arrest.
“I don’t know why. My office wasn’t a part of that decision,” Panter said about the affidavit being sealed. “I can say that he was initially arrested but has not been charged. He was arrested and bonded out, but prior to charging we had our own investigators start some investigation on it. He hasn’t been charged yet officially.”
In his closing statement during the Aug. 5 debate, Garrett said the county needs someone who cares about its residents.
“I’m that person who really cares and wants to do a really good job for representing you and working with the other departments in this county nonstop,” Garrett said.
In Bennett’s closing statement, he detailed priorities within his “90-day plan” for the sheriff’s office if elected.
“I also have a goal to place in a property crimes investigator position as a full time position,” Bennett said. “Lincoln County’s been carried off for way too long, and that is something that needs to change.”
